Obsessedsportsnut's Blog

June 24, 2010

Weekly Recap: 6/17 – 6/24

Filed under: basketball, hockey, weekly recap — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — Jonathan Lee @ 2:50 pm

I’ve realized for a lot of people, my blog posts are their only connection with the sports world. I know its weird…I find it shocking when people dont have espn.com set at their browser homepage.

So, I’ve decided to create a “weekly recap” post that take a look at some of the bigger stories in sports this past week. Just a warning to my non-Bay Area readers, I’ll probably be heavily Bay Area biased…so be aware.

Since I have to release a “weekly report” to my boss every week on Thursday at 2pm, I’ve decided that I’m going to try to release this recap thing Thursday afternoons as well. Yeah…multitasking at its finest.

World Cup

Probably the greatest sporting event in the world, and what I’ve been writing about for the past two weeks. I wont spend time talking about it here, though you can read about two of the bigger surprises: the US’s achievements so far and the French disaster.

The epic tennis match at Wimbledon between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut…

6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68. Simply…insane.

Just take a look at the records set in this game…

1) Longest match ever: 11 hours 5 minutes over a total of 3 days.
2) Longest set: 5th set lasted 8 hours 11 minutes
3) Most games in a set: 138 in the 5th
4) Most games in a match: 183
5) Most aces in a match by one player: Isner, 112
6) Total aces in a match: 215 total

This went down as the most epic tennis match ever played, and its a feat that will probably never ever be duplicated. What was absolutely stunning was the sheer quality of play throughout the 11 hours. There were 510 winners and 215 total aces, with only 122 unforced errors. The human will power shown during the entire game, and the emotions display at the completion of the game, coupled with the tremendous fan support, were all a testament to the beauty of sports.

The San Jose Sharks Offseason

After the Sharks were eliminated from the playoffs last year, talk immediately went to who the Sharks were going to sign: either Patrick Marleau or Evgeni Nabokov, two of the longest tenured Sharks and two of the fan favorites. Both player’s contracts were up, and the Sharks only had enough salary cap space to sign one of these players. Sign Marleau, lose Nabokov. Sign Nabokov, lose Marleau. It was a heated debate, with fans taking sides of one player or the other.

I took the side of Patrick Marleau, who I think is the heart and sole of this Sharks team, and someone who I wish retires as a Shark. Even throughout all the disappointments of these past couple seasons, Marleau has been the one who has always fought hard for his team.

With regards to Nabokov, he’s one of the great goaltenders of this league, but has never been able to perform well in the playoffs. Come playoff time, you need a goalie who will “steal” games and series for you, and Nabokov never came through for the Sharks. He never got “hot”. This past playoffs, Nabokov played his best ever, yet at the same time, he still let in a lot of soft goals that he should have stopped. What did this show me? Even when Nabokov plays his best, it’s really not good enough to win.

In the end, Nabokov was the one who was let go. Nabokov will be missed, as he was one of the fan’s favorite players. I wish him the best of luck.

Today, Patrick Marleau was signed to a 4 year contract, worth $6.9 million/season. This deal makes me love Marleau even more. Why? Marleau was the premier Center on the market this year, and could have attracted top money from numerous teams. While his $6.9 million/season is a lot, there are 20+ players who make more than him. He deserves to be one of the top paid players in the league, but he gave the Sharks a “hometown” discount to stay with the team.

NBA Free Agency Frenzy

And the buildup to the biggest summer in NBA history has begun, with two of the biggest players making key moves.

First, the Miami Heat traded Daequan Cook and an 18th pick to Oklahoma City for the 32nd pick in the round.
Then, the Chicago Bulls traded Kirk Hinrich and the 17th pick to the Wizards for players/picks to be announced.

While these trades might seem lopsided or unfair, they were done for one purpose only: to free up cap space to try to lure top players come July 1st. By trading away Cook and their 18th pick (who’s value is around $3 million), the Miami Heat has enough salary cap room to sign 3 max-contract players, their own Dwayne Wade and possibly two others, like Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire.

By getting rid of Hinrich’s $9 million contract, the Bulls freed enough cap room to sign 2 maximum-salary players from this years market, supposedly rumored to be Lebron James and Chris Bosh.

After all these deals, here’s an analyst’s projection of summer cap space.

1. New York Knicks – $34.2 million
2. Chicago Bulls – $29.1 million
3. New Jersey Nets – $27.2 million
4. Miami Heat – $26.2 million

Come July, it’ll be very interesting to see how things fall.

On a side note, The Warriors made a similar trade where they traded away Corey Maggette to Milwaukee for Charlie Bell and Dan Gadzuric. This wasn’t a trade for player quality in mind. Rather, this again was a salary dump trade. Maggette still has 3 years and $31 million on his contract, which the Bucks were willing to pick up since they’ll most likely lose John Salmons to free agency this year. Gadzuric only has $7.2 million in his last year on his contract, while Bell has $8 million over two years. By getting rid of Maggette’s insane contract, and losing Gadzuric’s contract after next season, the Warriors will too have a little cap space to try to get a quality free agent this summer.

June 23, 2010

World Cup 2010: United States vs Algeria post game thoughts

Filed under: World Cup — Tags: , , , — Jonathan Lee @ 10:55 am

WOW. simply. WOW. Maybe one of the most riveting games I have ever seen. I dont think I’ve ever had this much emotions watching a soccer game before. Simply wow.

Before I move on to some quick thoughts, I will step on my soapbox once again. In a time like this, I hate to find negatives in this situation, but once again, I will voice my displeasure regarding Bob Bradley’s decision of including Robbie Findley, Edson Buddle, and Hercules Gomez in the squad…and not Brian Ching. I dont think I will ever get off my soapbox at how bad a decision this was by Bradley.

Against Slovenia, coach Bob Bradley started Robbie Findley a top with Jozy Altidore. Today against Algeria, Bradley started Hercules Gomez at top. In both games, Findley and Gomez played horribly, looked out of place, and were subbed out at the half. In both cases, Bradley brought on Benny Feilhaber in the midfield and moved Clint Dempsey up to the forward position. In my previous post, I had mentioned that Bradley needs to scrap this idea of starting Findley, Gomez, Buddle at top with Altidore and just move straight into starting Dempsey at top. In both games, the US looked much stronger in the 2nd half with this new formation.

Buddle/Findley/Gomez are decent players, but they lack the experience on the international level. In a game like this, I dont think Bradley can trust them to perform.

Which brings me back to my original belief that Brian Ching would have formed the perfect strike partner with Jozy. He plays a similar game as Clint Dempsey, being a big, strong target man at top, but he would allow Dempsey to play in the midfield. Plus, Brian Ching has 45 international caps under his belt, so he has the necessary experience at the international level to succeed.

Anyways…moving on to the positives now.

1) After the Slovenia game, I had written I was unsure if I would call this an “average” or a “good” team. A good team beats team that they’re supposed to beat. The United States took care of business and earned their victory.

2) The one thing you have to love about this team is that this team NEVER gives up. This is a team that fights to the very last minute. Literally…the very last minute. In the game against Slovenia, you had Michael Bradley’s equalizing goal in the 82nd minute. Now today, we have the winning goal in the 91st. Amazing stuff. But again, this is nothing new.

Last year in world cup qualifying against Costa Rica on Oct 14th, Jonathan Bornstein scored in the 5th minute of injury time to equalize the game. Costa Rica was literally seconds away from playing in South Africa, but because of this goal, Honduras went on instead.

In last year summer’s Gold Cup tournament against Haiti, Stuart Holden scored the most beautiful goal to earn a tie with less than a minute left in the game. On a side note, look at what Brian Ching can provide to the team on his assist…

3) Landon Donovan continues to show everyone why he’s the best American player this country has ever produced. With his goal early in the 2nd half of the game and Slovenia and today’s goal, he is literally carrying this team on his shoulders. Back in March I wrote in this post,

If he continues to play at this high level at the highest level of soccer, he will be amazing at the World Cup in South Africa in June. The game experience of playing against quality opponent in pressure packed and hostile situations will be invaluable to the national team.

Landon Donovan has come through huge for the national team. Within two years, I predict he will make a full time transfer back to the Premier League and shine there.

4) Considering…everything, this is maybe the biggest, most important win in US history. The US has NEVER earned a point in each of their 6 3rd group game. Yes they lost every single one of them. A loss would have eliminated the team, and would have been the biggest disappointment to the team and fans back at home. Yes you can argue that their round of 16 victory over Mexico in 2002 was a big win, but it didnt really do much for the soccer in America.

After the 2009 Confederation Cup run in 2009 when the US beat Spain and almost beat Brazil, the profile of soccer has increased tremendously. You dont know how many friends I know who are watching soccer for the very first time ever, following the US team. There were so many people who woke up at 7am just to see the US play. Had they lost, I feel that the US soccer would have suffered tremendously and taken a big step backwards. But what this victory, there is an excitement in this country about soccer that Ive never seen before. With a 11am PST (2pm EST) kickoff on Saturday in their next game, I truly believe that a new record will be set with regards to how many people will be watching this game.

I also believe that the US’s achievements in South Africa and the fan’s excitement here at home is boosting the US’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup. This will only continue to legitimize American soccer (and its support) in the eyes of the international community.

5) The US wins their group for the first time ever!!! Everyone predicted that England and US would both advance, but not too many people had the US winning the group. Pretty awesome stuff.

The US will face the 2nd place team from Group D on Saturday, either Germany, Ghana, Serbia, or Australia.

By winning their group, the US also received a favorable draw for the quarterfinal rounds. Had they been the runner ups, they would have had to face either Mexico or Argentina (probably Argentina) in the quarterfinals if they win their round of 16 match. Now if they win their round of 16 match, they would face either South Korea or Uruguay, a lot easier matchup.

6) My predictions so far are pretty good.

My pre-world cup predictions: 5/6 (chose France)
My post-2nd game predictions: 6/6 (correctly chose US and England winning)

Anxious to see how I do for my Group D predictions. I have Germany and Serbia advancing.

June 22, 2010

World Cup 2010: The French Debacle

Filed under: World Cup — Tags: , , , — Jonathan Lee @ 2:33 pm

one of the biggest stories of this year is the total collapse of the French National Team.

To recap everything…

1. France played to a tie against Uruguay in a lackluster first game. Things weren’t that bad, and France had a chance to rebound in the next couple games to advance.
2. France loses 2-0 to Mexico in the 2nd game. Star forward Nicolas Anelka is subbed at halftime. Allegations come out after the game that Anelka had a nasty verbal exchange with coach Raymond Domenech at halftime.
3. Following the loss, Anelka was kicked off the National Team and sent home.
4. The team stood by their star player, fought back, and refused to take the field for their next practice session.
5. Captain Patrice Evra then got into a verbal argument on the field with trainer Robert Duverne. Duverne then quits on the spot.
6. The team director (kind of like the GM), Jean-Louis Valentin, quits as well in disgust
7. In the 3rd game, Domenech stripped Evra of the captains armband, and dropped him from the squad. The French end up losing to South Africa 2-1.
8. Domenech refuses to shake the hand of the South African coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira

What happened? Where did things go bad? Wasn’t France supposed to be one of the top teams in the world? Aren’t they supposed to be the #9 team in the world?

Well to really understand everything that happened, you have to go back to 2004, when the French Federation sacked coach Jacques Santini after France was eliminated from the Euro 2004. Two things followed from this…

1. Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, and Claude Makelele all retired from international football to concentrate on their club teams. These three players are some of the greatest players in French history, and ended the so-called “golden era” of french football that included the 1998 World Cup win and 2000 Euro win.

2. Raymond Domenech was hired as the replacement coach, who’s sole objective was to the reach “at least’ the 2006 World Cup semifinals.

With the retirement of some of the best French players, Domenech had a relatively inexperienced team since none of the younger players had much playing time on the international level. Because of this, the French national team struggled to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. Domenech then “forced” Zidane, Thuram, and Makelele out of retirement. Many analysts criticized Domenech and thought that these three players were too old to compete competitively in the tournament. Also Domenech was constantly criticized for his squad selection and constantly puzzled fans and players for his decisions to either play (or not) certain players.

However, as we saw with the Boston Celtics with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen this year, never rule out older, experienced players. Well…players who are healthy at least. Zidane, Makelele, and Thuram, stayed healthy, and they lead France to a spot in the Finals where they eventually lost in the Finals to Italy.

It was a remarkable and surprising showing by the French, who pretty much stunned the entire world.

However once again, Zidane went into retirement. Makelele and Thuram agreed to play for Domenech at the Euro 2008, but they were really too old to play at a high level anymore. Coupled that with the fact that Domenech couldnt find a replacement in the midfield for Zidane, the best player in French history, France couldn’t even advance out of their group in the tournament. Makelele and Thuram finally retired, and Domenech really had trouble on his hands.

Domenech was unable to find players to adequately replace the “old guard”. Yes Franck Ribery was supposed to be Zidane’s replacement in the midfield, but Ribery has a long way to go to be even half of what Zidane ever was.

Ever since 2008, the French national team has just been flat out horrible. They struggled mightily in qualifying for the World Cup in South Africa, and it took a handball goal by Thierry Henry to “defeat” Ireland in the playoffs.

In the buildup to the World Cup, France struggled tremendously as well. On May 30th, France was only able to tie #55 Tunisia 1-1. Less than a week later, France lost to #84 China 1-0. In both of these games, France was fielding their top team.

Throughout the past 4 years, Domenech has slowly lost control and respect of his team, due to his erratic decision making, indecision, and lack of respect for his players. What happened in South Africa was the culmination of 4 years of a bad regime and it finally blew up into one of the biggest stories of South Africa.

In closing, one final note about the FIFA rankings. Yes France is ranked #9 in the World, but you have to take into account how FIFA calculates its rankings.

The thing about FIFA rankings is that they dont accurately reflect the current state of the team. They actually take into account all games over the past 4 years. Therefore, France’s World Cup appearance in the 2006 finals added a ton to their rankings formula. Take away that appearance, and France would probably be ranked around the same spot as Uruguay and Mexico. If you ask anyone to rank the top teams based on current form, I dont think people would have France at #9.

June 21, 2010

When I became a sports nut

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Jonathan Lee @ 11:19 pm

It is a well-known fact that I’m an absolute sports nut. I love almost all sports, and I’m a diehard “anything Bay Area” sports fan. Recently as I’ve started this blog, and people see how much I really follow sports, a lot of people have asked me, “When did this all start? When did you become obsessed?”

Surprisingly, I can give them a direct answer: 1994. Without a doubt, that year was the beginning of this huge passion of mine.

In 1994, the San Jose Sharks played their first season in the newly built San Jose Arena. In their previous first two seasons of existence, they were playing at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. In the Sharks 2nd season, the Sharks gained only 24 points, and set a NHL record of 71 losses in the season. However what took place in their 1st season in San Jose was the biggest turnaround in NHL history, where they finished with a total of 82 points, an increase of 58 points, and made the playoffs for the first time ever. In the 1st round of the playoffs, the Sharks upset the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings, in what some call the biggest playoff upset in all of NHL history. In the 2nd round against Toronto, the Sharks ended up losing in 7 games. What was sad was that they could have won it overtime in game 6, but Johan Garpenlov hit the crossbar. The Sharks captured the hearts of the entire city, and I instantly fell in love with the team. How great was this season? The city of San Jose through a parade in honor of this team. I dont think ANY city has ever thrown a parade for a team that didnt win a championship, but what the Sharks accomplished was that amazing. Was I there? Of course. It meant so much to me that my dad took me out of school to attend the rally!

In 1994, the United States hosted its first ever World Cup, and Stanford Stadium in nearby Palo Alto was chosen as one the site venues. I had grown up playing soccer since I was very young, and I absolutely loved the sport. To this day, it remains both my favorite sport to play and watch on television. In the 1994 World Cup, the United States miraculously made it out of the group stage, and drew Brazil in the next round. What was completely awesome was that this match took place on July 4th at Stanford Stadium. There was a frenzy in the entire Bay Area that the national team was playing its first knockout round game at Stanford. It was impossible to not get caught up with the excitement. What was even more awesome was that the Brazilian national team (the eventual champions) chose Los Gatos as their home base in the buildup to this match. I clearly remember heading to downtown Los Gatos on a Saturday evening with my parents, and we took in all the excitement and partied with all the other Brazilian fans. The success of this tournament led to the birth of soccer in this country. San Jose was granted one of the original MLS franchises, and eventually went on to win 2 MLS Cups.

In 1994, the San Francisco 49ers fielded one of the greatest teams in the NFL that season led by Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Ricky Watters, Ken Norton Jr, Deion Sanders, and others. They were such an amazing team to watch and follow and they eventually won Super Bowl XXIX against San Diego.

In 1994, I started attending Challenger School for the 4th grade, where I was reacquainted with one of my best friends from Kindergarden and 1st grade, Ernest Ling. Ernest’s dad was a Stanford alum, and a big supporter of their sports teams. Since I hung out with Ernest 24/7, I naturally started to follow the Stanford Cardinal as well. The Stanford sports teams in the mid-90s to early 2000s were very dominant in the Pac-10. The basketball team made the 2nd rounds of the tournament in the 94 and 95 seasons, made the sweet 16 in 96, and finally the Final Four in 97. The 1994 season was also Tyrone Willingham’s first year leading the football team, and he immediately made the team competitive. They made back to back bowl games in the 1995 and 1996 seasons, before playing in the Rose Bowl in 2000.

In 1994, the Golden State Warriors were actually….GOOD. In the previous couple seasons, the Warriors had the famous Run-TMC group, composed of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin. Unfortunately, they disbanded this group. However in 1994 with the #1 pick, the Warriors drafted Chris Webber, who eventually went on to earn the Rookie of the Year award. Webber, alongside Latrell Sprewell, who went on to gain All NBA First team status, lead the Warriors to the playoffs that season. This was also the last time that the Warriors made the playoffs until the 2006-2007 season.

What about baseball?! Well in 1994, the MLB had its mid-season strike…so that sucked. But in the previous year, Barry Bonds signed with the San Francisco Giants and the Giants were involved in a pennant race against the Atlanta Braves where they missed out of the playoffs by 1 game, despite leading the Braves by 10 games at one point. Many people consider this to be the “last great pennant race” ever. The Giants struggled the next three years, but eventually improved to be one of the best teams in baseball, including a berth in the World Series in 2002.

Basically in 1994, the entire Bay Area sports scene was EXCITING!!! All our teams were either at the height of their dominance, or just about to enter in a new era. I was fascinated by our teams, and came to really love all of them.

World Cup 2010: Advancement Scenarios for all teams

Filed under: World Cup — Tags: , — Jonathan Lee @ 1:38 pm

With the conclusion of the 2nd set of games, the advancement picture for all teams is pretty clear.

The following teams move on to the next round, regardless of the outcome of the 3rd game: Brazil and Netherlands.
The following teams have already been eliminated from the tournament: North Korea and Cameroon.

All other 28 teams have a MATHEMATICAL chance of advancing to the next round, though some might be more probably than others.

Here are the following advancement scenarios for all teams. Note the following tiebreakers to decide the advancing team.

1) Total points after 3 games (3 pts for a win, 1 pt for a tie, 0 points for a loss)
2) Goal differential (total goals scored – total goals give up). This is noted by “GD” below.
3) Total goals scored
4) Head-to-head matchup

Group A

Uruguay (4pts/3gd) and Mexico (4pts/2gd) are in the driver’s seat in this group. If they play to a draw in their last game, both advance to the next round. France (1pt/-2gd) and South Africa (1pt/-3gd), have a very slight chance to advance. They have to outright win their game, and hope there is a clear winner in the Uruguay/Mexico game. On top of that, they have to make up goal differentials…the other game’s winner has to win by at least 2 goals, and either France/SA have to win by at least 2 goals.

Pre-World Cup Predictions: France and Mexico
Post-1st game Predictions: Uruguay and Mexico
Post-2nd game Predictions: Uruguay and Mexico

(more…)

June 18, 2010

World Cup 2010: US Advancement Scenarios

Filed under: World Cup — Tags: , , , , , — Jonathan Lee @ 1:00 pm

So I’ve been asked a bunch of times, what it will take for the US to advance to the next stage.

Here are the tie breaking situations regarding advancement (top 2 teams advance).

1. Total points after three games (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss).
2. Goal differential after three games (total goals scored – total goals given up)
3. Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches

So after two games, here are the standings of Group C:

Team Points Goal Differential Goals Scored
Slovenia 4 1 3
United States 2 0 3
England 2 0 1
Algeria 1 -1 0

I’ve had a lot of questions about what needs to happen for the United States to advance.

The US will advance if…

The United States BEATS Algeria regardless of the outcome of England vs Slovenia

or

The United States TIES Algeria AND Slovenia BEATS England

or

The United States ties Algeria AND Slovenia ties England AND the United States scores more total goals over 3 games than England (after 2 games, the US has scored 3 goals and the English have scored 1 goal)

To sum everything up…if the US wins…they’re in. If they lose, they’re out. If they tie, they need help from the other game.

Basically, the US is in the best possible position. Their advancement to the next round rests solely in their hands.

They need to take advantage of it and get that win against Algeria.

World Cup 2010: United States vs Slovenia Recap

Filed under: World Cup — Tags: , , , — Jonathan Lee @ 9:58 am

It could have been worse. Once again, the US found itself in an early hole, and struggled to earn a hard-fought tie. It should have been a win at the end of the game, if not for some lame refereeing. But again, a loss would have killed the US’s hopes for advancing to the next round. With a tie, they still have a good chance of advancing, but definitely need a win against Algeria to advance.

Moving on to some quick thoughts from today’s United States vs Slovenia game…

1) Robbie Findley is just plain horrible. He’s absolutely TERRIBLE.

All along, I never believed he belonged on the World Cup team. I understand coach Bob Bradley’s decision to include him on the team though: he provides a speed up front that Charlie Davies provided before he was injured. But that’s where the similarities end. Findley is nowhere near the player Davies was before his accident. The entire first half, the defense tried sending long balls for Findley to chase down, but he never put himself into position to receive them, and when he did, he screwed up every opportunity. He lacks the experience, expertise, and skill to correctly make the right decision.

He picked up a yellow card today as well, so he wont be able to play against Algeria. THANK GOODNESS. GET HIM OFF THE FIELD!!!

and I still stand by my belief that Brian Ching should have made the team instead of Findley.

(more…)

June 17, 2010

World Cup 2010: United States vs Slovenia

Filed under: World Cup — Tags: , , — Jonathan Lee @ 4:09 pm

When the World Cup group draw was released last year, many people got lost in the excitement that was “England vs United States”. Many people mistakingly thought that this match-up was the most important/biggest game that the United States would play in the group stage. Lost in the hype and excitement surrounding the build up to the game was the fact that many analysts had the US losing, yet still advancing to the 2nd stage.

Contrary to popular belief, the US’s most important game is their upcoming game against Slovenia, the #25 ranked team in the World (US is #14). After the Slovenia gained 3 points with a win over Algeria, this game has become nearly a must win situation for the US. Why? Let’s take a look at the standings after the 1st game. After the 1st game, Slovenia leads the group with 3 points, while England and United States has 1 point. Algeria is last with 0 points.

One has to “assume” that the #8 English will beat both Algeria and Slovenia. Yes, weird things have happened (Switzerland beating Spain), but on any random day, the English have to be considered HEAVY favorites against these two teams. If they do beat these two teams, the English will finish with 7 points.

Now lets take a look at the following scenarios making the assumption that the English beats both Algeria and Slovenia

The US LOSES to Slovenia

Slovenia would finish with 6 points. Even if the US beats Algeria, they will only finish with 4 points. The US would fail to advance to the next round.

The US TIES Slovenia

Slovenia would finish with 4 points. The US would have 2 points following 2 games. Their game against Algeria would become a MUST WIN situation.

The US BEATS Slovenia

Slovenia would finish with 3 points, and the US would have 4 points after the first two games. There would be less pressure against Algeria in their final game to get a desirable outcome.

To note, there are many external variables surrounding these outcomes, and it is very possible that England will choke like France or Spain and lose a match. In order to minimize the impact of external situations regarding the US’s advancement to the next round, the US needs to take advantage of what they’re given and win.

The US is a far better, more skilled team than Slovenia, and they SHOULD win this game. Anything less will definitely be a disappointment.

I feel there are 4 type of teams: a bad team, average team, good team, and a great team.

A bad team can’t beat anyone. An average team is the unpredictable one…they can beat good teams and lose to bad teams. A good team consistently beats the bad/average teams, yet can not consistently beat fellow good/great teams. A great team consistently beats everyone (or can beat anyone on the biggest stage).

With regards to basketball last season, bad team = Washington Wizards. average team = Golden State Warriors. good team = Cleveland Cavaliers. great team = Boston Celtics and LA Lakers.

The United States is definitely not a bad team, nor are they a great team. However, I dont know whether to label them an average team or a good team yet. The US has shown flashes of brilliance in world cup qualifying as well as pre-world cup warmups, but they have also shown inconsistency at times.

It’ll be interesting to see what kind of team shows up for the game tomorrow. The US is heavily favored against Slovenia and Algeria. Let’s see if they play like the favorites.

June 16, 2010

World Cup 2010: Thoughts after the 1st set of games

Filed under: World Cup — Tags: — Jonathan Lee @ 7:21 pm

So after this morning’s two games, the first set of games of round 1 is finally complete. Here’s a look back at this week’s games.

Biggest Mistake: Serbia’s Zdravko Kuzmanovic handball in the box against Ghana

While the English will argue that Robert Green’s error against the Americans was the biggest mistake, in the overall big picture and given the circumstances, the error wasn’t THAT big.

1) The US only tied the game early in the 2nd half. The English didnt come away with a loss
2) The English had plenty of time remaining to win the game and had numerous chances that it couldn not capitalize on.
3) A tie doesnt screw over the English. They still have two more winnable games against Algeria and Slovenia to advance.

The following handball by Zdravko Kuzmanovic against Ghana was much more devastating.

1) It came in the 85th minute, so the Serbians had very little time to try to get an equalizing goal.
2) Serbia needed a point against Ghana to advance to the next round. Now Ghana has 3 points and Serbia has 0. Unless Serbia can pull a shocking upset tie/win against Germany, it’s very likely that this hand ball play will deny the Serbians passage to the next round.

Best Goal: Germany’s Miroslav Klose’s goal against Australia

close runner up: Brazil’s Macion goal against North Korea.

2nd runner up: South Africa’s Siphiwe Tshabalala’s goal against Mexico for the first goal of the 2010 World Cup.

Biggest Upset: Switzerland 1. Spain 0.

What a shocking win for the #24 ranked Swiss over the #2 ranked Spaniards. Is it nerve-wrecking time in Spain? Not yet, since I still feel this is one of the best teams in the world. I predict they’ll have wins over Chile and Honduras to qualify for the next round.

close runner up: Japan 1. Cameroon 0.While there are 22 spots in rankings between Switzerland and Spain, there are 26 spots between Japan and Cameroon. This was a Cameroon team that was 2nd in the 2008 African Cup of Nations and a finalist in this year’s 2010 ACN. Many people considered Les Lions Indomptables to be Africa’s best bet to advance the farthest in the tournament.

Most Impressive Team: Germany

Germany by far looked the best after their 4-0 win against Australia. Before the tournament, I had written in a previous post that the Germans might struggle from a lack of goal scoring because of poor form by some of their star players.

Well as we can see by this year’s Boston Celtics, you can never disregard great veterans. They always know how to come through in the clutch. Even though, Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose had very very bad club seasons, they came through on the big stage and scored Germany’s first two goals.

A very very impressive showing from the Germans.

close runner ups: Argentina, Brazil, Netherlands, South Korea: All these teams got necessary wins against quality opponents and all showed flashes of brilliance. These teams should all have a great tournament.

Most Disappointing Teams: Tie between Italy and France

The French and Italy both drew ties against Uruguay and Paraguay, respectively.

They played ugly football.

Enough said.

Random Thoughts and Musings

1. The most talked about object from the World Cup: the vuvuzela…the most obnoxious object ever created. Can someone please buy me one?

2. According to some reports, the England vs USA game drew more viewers than each night of the first four games of the NBA Finals. It’s finally great to see Americans interested in soccer. You dont know how many friends I have who are watching and following soccer for the very first time.

3. The Group of Death has to be the most interesting group, with Brazil ahead with 3 points and the Ivory Coast and Portugal tied with 1 point, and North Korea with 0.

After the game, I had thought that it will come down to either Portugal and the Ivory Coast advancing on goal differential. Basically, who beats North Korea the most and who loses to Brazil the least. I really dont think they have the ability to beat Brazil. However, I wont be surprised if the North Koreans pull off an upset and either tie/beat the Ivory Coast or Portugal.

4) The Asian teams (except for Australia) look very good, with Japan and South Korea getting wins, and North Korea playing very respectably against the top team in the world.

On that note, I think South Korea has to be a dark horse to make it the late rounds. This is a team that was a semifinalist back in 2002. They are a very strong and well-discipline team led by one of my favorite players in the world, Ji Sung Park. I’m very interested to see how they play on Thursday against a strong opponent in Argentina.

5) The lack of scoring has been an interesting topic around analysts. Out of all 32 teams, only one team, Germany, scored more than 2 goals. Even then, only 3 other teams scored 2 goals. What to make of it? Hopefully its just because teams are being tentative, and dont want to start the tournament off with a loss. Let’s just wait and see if this lack-of-goals trend continues.

Predictions Going Forward

Here are my predictions before the tournament started on who would advance.

After the first set of games, I’ve revised a couple…

Group A: France Uruguay and Mexico
Group B: Argentina and South Korea
Group C: England and the United States
Group D: Germany and Serbia Ghana
Group E: Netherlands and Cameroon
Group F: Italy and Slovakia
Group G: Brazil and Portugal
Group H: Chile Swizterland and Spain

June 15, 2010

College Football Expansion: the dust finally clears

Filed under: football — Tags: , , , , , — Jonathan Lee @ 10:55 am

so after weeks of speculation about this Pac-16 megaconference, it turns out…nothing drastic will happen. it was nice to daydream this past couple of weeks about what could have been, but in the end, I always believed this was too drastic a change that the chances of this happening was pretty unrealistic.

in the end, the University of Texas decided to stay in the Big 12 of only 10 teams. on a side note, the Big 10 has 12 teams now…go figure.

a recap of what’s happened…

1) Nebraska left the Big 12 to go to the Big 10.
2) Colorado left the Big 12 to go to the Pac 10
3) Boise State left the WAC to go to the Mountain West Conference

All along, Texas kept placing the possible downfall of the Big 12 on Nebraska and Colorado for deciding to leave. However throughout this entire ordeal, it was always Texas that was the biggest key to keeping the conference intact. In the end, yes it was Texas’s decision, and they finally decided to stay.

Why? Money, money, money. All along, I’ve always said its been about the money.

By staying, the Longhorns have re-negotiated their contracts to make an estimated $20-$25 million a year, as opposed to $10-$15 million before. They have also been allowed to create their own tv network that will bring in $3-$5 million a year. On top of that, Texas will keep the buyout penalty that Colorado and Nebraska have to pay for leaving the Big 12.

Another reason to have doubted the expansion rumors to the Pac-10 was the fact that Texas has always been the “alpha male” in its conference. If it had joined the Pac-10, it would have had to compete with equally strong schools such as USC, UCLA, and Stanford (who have won the Director’s Cup for the past 15+ years as the country’s top athletic program). No one in the Big 12 dares to put up a fight with Texas and they just bow down to their presence. On the contrary, there are many schools in the Pac-10 that would put up a fight with Texas.

The ramifications of everything…

1) The Big 10 gets what it has always wanted…Nebraska so they can hold a conference championship game. Ideally they would have wanted Notre Dame, but Nebraska has always been there #2 choice.

2) The Big 12 might turn out stronger with this change. Nebraska and Colorado never really offered much lately to the Big 12 in terms of football or basketball, and with the departure of these two, the Big 12 can now play in a single division. Before they had played in two very, very competitively unbalanced divisions, with the South composed of Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech, and the North composed of teams like Nebraska, Missouri Kansas State, and Iowa State in the other. How unfair were these divisions? The South has won 10/14 championship games, including the last 6.

3) The Pac-10 has to be the biggest loser here. Yeah they were able to bring in Colorado, but they definitely struck out trying to bring the entire Big 12 south to the conference. They are still one team short of a championship conference game, and will have to go back to the drawing board to see who to invite. All guesses will be the University of Utah Utes.

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